Wednesday, September 27, 2017

These days, developments related to "technology" seemingly must be hyped as "disruptive innovations" that will "revolutionize the world", "change people's lives", etc. It's easy to lose perspective and take these claims at face value. How about a reality check? For example, this modern wrist stuff business of taking a pulse and counting calories is actually 1986-vintage quaint.

The modus operandi of dressing up decades old, forgotten products in "technology" appears more like borderline plagiarism because sources are left uncited --- only be sure always to call it please, "research". Taken in context, these technological novelties could appear as ephemeral from the beginning. And if that were so, technology hype would be appropriately reduced to merely enabling more efficient reproduction of sources of amusement and entertainment. This usage of science hardly constitutes progress, much less a revolution.